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Under ‘Empowerment’, government’s wish for a greater role for local people and police authorities in more accountability at a local level is expected to include the public directly electing representatives onto police authorities.
Cumbria County and Carlisle City councillor, Reg Watson OBE, chairman of Cumbria Police Authority, welcomes the new Green Paper:
“This is all about giving people the sort of policing service they want, which must be right. In Cumbria we’re fortunate to have one of the top-performing forces in the country, with detection rates amongst the highest, overseen by a largely-apolitical body winning accountability from policing every day. With criminals having a good chance of being caught and crime levels falling, we don’t have the problems some have, of public satisfaction lagging far behind our policing achievements. Like government, confidence and satisfaction are key outcomes for us in Cumbria, where 84% of people are satisfied with the policing service received. Even amongst those who’ve not had dealings, people report much higher confidence in policing in this county, although we’re still aiming for better. There’s a lot in this paper to consider, but my earliest reservation is about unclear proposals in the Green Paper for direct elections to the authority. Why do we need this? After 12 years of independent police authorities as authentic representatives of their communities, do you really want to risk politicising British policing through some group of eccentric, single-issue types or even political extremists becoming the majority on the public body meant to oversee and support your local Chief Constable?
“Since the merger process collapsed in 2006, the Constabulary has gone from strength to strength and, as far as as I’m concerned, the Police Authority is not going to volunteer for merger again, not unless we’re forced to – although proposals to remove protections in the Home Office funding formula could threaten real headaches for Cumbria. I do like the Green Paper’s approach to reinforcing the duty for collaboration between police forces. That’s been one major dividend from the 2006 process and we have some tremendous operational collaborations across the north west that Cumbria has played a big part in, as I know from chairing the NW Collaboration Group. These joint initiatives are delivering real results, both in fighting crime more effectively and improving our organisational efficiency together. I also like the Green Paper’s ideas about reducing bureaucracy for our officers out on the streets, and its ambition to cut down on ‘top-down’ targets is another welcome element.
“What the Authority is going to do now is for its Members to sit down with the Chief Constable and talk through all these implications with him. We’re also consulting with the people of Cumbria, and would be glad to hear everyones’ views on the Green Paper, so that together we can provide some good, strong Cumbrian feedback to the Home Office consultation ending in October. |
